Mackenzie (The Naked King) launches the Duchess of Love Regency trilogy with an engaging tale that balances greed, jealousy, and malice with humor and sweetness. Miss Eleanor Bowman has loved Lord Edward Greycliffe since childhood, but he married her best friend, who then died in childbirth. After four years of mourning, Ned thinks he needs a practical and functional wife who can produce an heir and a spare. Ellie, unwed and desperate at 26, decides to stop waiting for Ned to notice her and goes husband-hunting when Ned’s matchmaker mother, known as the Duchess of Love, invites her to the annual St. Valentine’s Day ball. Mackenzie gives the partygoers a multitude of hidden agendas—not excepting the duchess’s rapscallion cat, Sir Reggie, whose hilarious antics help to bring Ellie and Ned together—and readers will cheer as each villain’s deceit is revealed and both justice and romance are served. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds. (June)